Akira walked down the city street, until he suddenly started feeling the headaches once again. He looked at the pills, however he decided it wasn't time to take them yet, but as he continued to walk, he felt that hunger even more than before.
"Hungry."
Again he heard it, that voice which wasn't his own. The moment he heard it again, he quickly took one of the yellow insulin capsules out and swallowed it without hesitation. Although his headache subsided, the hunger had barely decreased.
"Should I just.. go back?"
But then he remembered he had a routine to up hold. If necessary, he would just eat all the pills then come back the next day. For now he should just go back home.
While walking he felt something strange. He passed by another alleyway, much like the one he got bitten in. This one wasn't as ominous, but there was defiantly something going on down there.
Learning his lesson from last time, Akira decided against going down there. But then he heard it, a sound no one else could for some reason. The sound of a girl screaming.
He began to sweat bullets as he contemplated going down there himself, or calling for help, but then he remembered he had a routine to maintain. At this point, he didn't care if someone was in danger anymore, keeping his routine was much more of a priority towards him right now. He had learnt that the hard way.
"I don't need to get myself involved. I'm sure a returner or the police is on their way already..."
Yep. This choice was the right one to him. But then suddenly his hunger grew exponentially out of nowhere, as his mouth began to uncontrollably water.
"Hungry."
That voice again. THAT VOICE AGAIN.
He abruptly turned around and entered that dark alleyway. He didn't want to, but a sensation akin to an addiction, pulled him into there. As his stomach rumbled, he asked himself,
'what am I doing?'.
He was too locked the trance to notice that he had dropped his bottle of insulin capsules.
Once he finally got down to the end, he found a group of 5 men surrounding a woman. It was obvious what was going on. Something terrible was about to take place.
All of the men wore the same styled outfit, with a black leather jacket, a white armband, and strange haircuts. On their back, they all wore the Black bone gang insignia.
"Why don't you come back to Gehenna with us? We can give you a good time? You might even enjoy it!"
One of the men suddenly grabbed the women by the arm, before tearing her sleeve off. As she screamed even louder for help, some of the other men tried to grab onto her even more.
A man farthest from them, then noticed Akira who was walking up to them. He appeared to be in a daze.
"Huh? Who the heck are you?"
This one was armed with a long steel pipe. He was the only human of the group, so to look tough, he began to act in a way that made him seem bigger than he was. This interaction caught the attention of the others before they could do anything else.
The human with the pipe approached Akira, laying the pipe on his shoulder to look tough.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Can't you see we're busy here? Look. I'll give you one chance to—"
The entire world turned upside down, which confused him. Uncontrollably his head hit the floor, and then he saw his own headless body standing upright, before falling down with him. He couldn't even say any last words until he finally died.
The shape of Akira's right hand was still the same, but it seemed to be made out of a strange black and red shadow that sharpened his hand into a blade.
One of the gang members screamed as he opened the palm of his hand. A ball of Aether the size of a football gathered, and turned into a rotating flame.
"Die you ass!"
The Junker member ran up to Akira while aiming for his left side, but his left hand turned into a form similar to his right, and with it, he grabbed the ball of flame, smothering it easily.
In a single moment, he decapitated him too. This time, he caught his head and Akira's face began to be covered by that strange shadow. Around the place where his mouth should be, the shadow grew several sharp teeth.
With a single bite, he swallowed his head whole.
"Still hungry."
The largest of the last three quickly got in front of the other two. He raised both of his arms, conjuring a blue barrier of Aether. He was terrified, but he wouldn't allow his brothers to die. He was even protecting the women they were about to assault too!
"I can't feel any Aether from that thing"? What the hell are you!? Answer me!"
From the place Akira stood, his shadow began to warp. It too turned red and black as it rose from the ground. The large mass the size of a car grew several eyes, before eventually taking the shape of a wolfs head.
With just a single bite, it tore apart the barrier, as well as the top of half of his torso. The last remaining two were frozen in fear. One even began to pee himself, while the other got on his knees and started to begging for mercy.
"Still hungry."
In quick succession, the wolf quickly ate the other two Black bone gang members. Despite being paralysed in fear, the women shook heavily as she slowly collapsed to the floor.
"Still hungry."
Akira slowly approached the woman, before suddenly jolting. He started to scream before grabbing onto the shadow on his face.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
As he pulled onto it, he felt as if he was tearing his own face off. The wolf made of the shadows melted into the ground, as Akira took back control over his body. Taking this opportunity, the woman quickly slipped past Akira, and ran away while screaming for her life.
He fell to his knee's as he tore of the last pieces of the shadow. His hands reverted back to normal and took human colour once more.
Realizing what he had done, Akira hunched over and started to cry. Yet again he had found himself surrounded by the dead. This time killed by his own hand.
"If only I kept my routine... none of this would've happened.. Why am I like this?"
Suddenly he heard the sound of a camera snapping a picture behind him. He quickly turned around, only to see what looked like a little girl in a green coat and scarf.
"Ah."
Not only was there a woman who knew what he looked like, but now there's a picture of him at the crime scene too. Even if it was him responsible for this madness, he didn't have the guts to kill a little girl.
Without saying anything, he just accepted the inevitable end.
"Your the one who attacked that guy the other day, right? I have the photo that too."
She even had a picture of that?? Was she a stalker?
The child slowly walked over to Akira while holding the camera in her hand. Slowly, she extended out a hand to him.
"How about we work together? I won't release these photos, and in return, you will help with some chores?"
A sudden proposition. In all this chaos, Akira had only one thing he could rely on. Routine. He had to get back to his routine no matter what.
The sounds of several police sirens began to ring outside the alley. Chances were, there was possibly even Returners coming for him. He quickly took the girls hand, accepting her terms.
She smiled as she said,
"Cheers."
They became enveloped in a bright blue light which devoured them. Suddenly they disappeared, leaving behind no trace of their presence. Chief of police, Elodie Moreau walked down the Alley along with the Returner Genma.
"Jesus Christ.", Moreau said as he looked at that awful sight. He had never seen anything as brutal as this despite his time in the police.
Genma on the other, looked at this as if it was a common sight. He opened his eyes ever so slightly despite them being empty.
"Two of them had been decapitated, yet one of their heads was missing. And the other three had been mauled to death? Whoever did this is sickening."